10 October 2026
(8 April 2016) In 1832 a collection of poems was published by ‘two brothers,’ and one of these brothers was the now well-know Alfred, Lord Tennyson. At the time, his work as a poet was virtually unknown, and his collection was brought to the attention of one of England’s senior poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tennyson, so the tale goes, wanted to know what Coleridge thought of his poems. Coleridge replied curtly, stating that Tennyson needed to study metrics and apply the principles to his poetry. This criticism was a blow to the young Tennyson, who around the same time lost his best friend, Arthur Hallam (the subject of the collection later published as “In Memoriam”). We are a prickly lot, and it took Tennyson some time to get over Coleridge’s harsh criticism–but Tennyson did study metrics, and in 1842 published a collection titled “Poems” which contained revisions of the 1832 poems, and the change was incredible. One of my favorites has always been the narrative poem, “The Lady of Shalott,” an Arthurian tale of a lady who sits in her tower and weaves a tapestry of the scenes she sees from her window, but the lady is cursed, for the day she leaves the tower will be the day she dies. Here is Part 1:
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro’ the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow-veil’d
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?
Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to tower’d Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers “‘Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.”
Notice the interesting structure of each stanza: four rhymed lines, an indented line, four more rhymed lines, and a final indented line. Also, at the center of each stanza is ‘Camelot’, while at the end is ‘Shalott’, the final rhymed pair. This will be important later in the poem. Here in this part, the poet sets the scene, describing the space, the fields between Camelot and the river, and in the river is an island where the tower of Shalott rests, overlooking the road to Camelot. All anyone knows of the lady in the tower is that she can be seen looking out of the window, watching all the passes below her. We will continue with this poem next week. Good reading!
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